


101 Ways To Die

by TanithClaraComet_BillPip



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Gen, Series 04: Miracle Day, Spoilers for 04:10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:34:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 436
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28076307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanithClaraComet_BillPip/pseuds/TanithClaraComet_BillPip
Summary: As Esther lies dying beside Rex, she remembers a story Jack told her. The story of the dead members of his old teams.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones, Possible Jack Harkness/Esther Drummond
Kudos: 16





	101 Ways To Die

Esther knew she was going to die. Kind of came with the job description. Torchwood members - regardless of how unofficial or official - didn't exactly have a high life expectancy.

Still, she'd hoped for a little longer.

As she lay on the tiled floor, her own blood splattering her face, a gaping hole burning her chest, a bullet lodged deep beneath her skin, she remembered a story Jack had told her in their two months on the run.

_ "There's one hundred and one ways to die," whispered Jack, his voice tight with emotion, "and my team has experienced all of them." _

_"Tell me about them," urged Esther, biting her lip_.

_ "Alice," began Jack, "and Emily. They were the ones who recruited me. Alice died less then a month later. Ripped apart by a Weevil. When the Hub blew up, you could still faintly see the bloodstains on the vault floor. Emily got to live for a little longer, but when the Cybermen crawled to Earth from the stars they killed her, tore out her brain and squashed it inside a metal suit." _

_Esther looked up at him, watching the haunted look in his eyes as he got closer to the people before her and Rex._

_ Finally he reached them. "Suzie. Suzie Costello. Got hooked on the Risen Mitten, started killing people so she could use it. Shot herself in the head when we found out. Came back to life a couple of months later, nearly killed Gwen. I shot her and she stayed dead." _

_ He took a deep breath before moving on to the next ones. "Then there was Toshiko," he said. "Toshiko and Owen. They died saving the world. Owen died, then came back, then got trapped in a nuclear reactor and his body slowly decomposed as he watched. Tosh got shot by Gray, and lived long enough to save Cardiff from nuclear annihilation, then died in my arms." His voice grew heavy with grief. "I couldn't save her." _

_ "Last there was Ianto. Ianto Jones, coffee genius, between you and me looked brilliant in a suit. He was in Thames House. The 456 slaughtered him." _

_Esther looked at him, eyes wide._

_She understood the grief. She understood the pain. And she understood that he would get past it. Not forget, not forgive their killers, but get past it, carry them with him. His soul would be made up of fragments of their's._

Esther smiled as she lay on the floor, bleeding out. One hundred and one ways to die. She'd made it a hundred and two.

But she wouldn't be forgotten.

Torchwood had seen to that.


End file.
